Grape Festival, Cena clarifies “No commissioner”

During the meeting with the Pro loco the hypothesis emerged: “Terms not correct” Both the safety plan and the program are still being drafted

caluso

It is not a deadly question, but the proposal, aired by some members during two meetings, to have a commissioner sent by the Police Headquarters to coordinate the Municipal Operations Center (Coc) during the key evening of the Grape Festival certainly created tensions. Erbaluce di Caluso, that of the veje piole and the quadrilateral of taste, capable of attracting thousands of young people attracted by the rich food and wine offer and musical concerts of the “city of wine”.

A proposal that derives from the fear of reliving the serious episode that took place in last year’s edition, when a young Sangiustese ended up with a reserved prognosis after a violent beating in the central Via Bettoja. But it would remain so. In a note released last Tuesday, the Police Headquarters stated that “they have not received any communication from the organizers, nor that they have had discussions with them. The aforementioned identification by the Police Headquarters of the figure of a commissioner who will act as coordinator of the municipal operations center that manages the police controls from the town hall is therefore groundless. It should be remembered, in fact, that the aspects of public order and safety connected to the conduct of public events are governed by an order from the police chief who arranges the related services and management by public security officials ».

The mayor of Caluso Maria Rosa Cena also enters the merits of the matter, clarifying and throwing water on the fire: “It was an incorrect terminology, and among other things only hypothesized, which emerged already in the first meeting between the Pro loco and the institutional components of the event (protection consortium, regional wine shop, large council of the belief, order of the nymphs, and Caluso carabinieri station), then reaffirmed in the second meeting with the representatives of the districts and hamlets of Caluso. The Municipality sends the safety and evacuation plan to the Police Headquarters. And this has been happening since 2017, following the provisions contained in the Gabrielli circular following the tragic events in Piazza San Carlo in Turin ».

As is well known, the circular outlines an organizational model for the governance and management of public events in an integrated security framework to which the following contribute in a coordinated way: safety measures, i.e. the devices and measures to safeguard the safety of people and the security, i.e. public order and security services. In the security plan the Municipality had invested 6 thousand euros of additional resources with a strengthening that took place in 2019, at the request of the carabinieri of the Chivasso company, who had highlighted a series of gaps in the previous edition. For example, there were no escape routes in the central Piazza Ubertini. The plan for 2022 should therefore follow that of 2019, (then there was the pandemic). The conditional, however, remains a must as the mayor Maria Rosa Cena says she has not yet received it. And so is the Pro loco. In fact, the engineer Emanuele Tini is still at work and limits himself to declaring: «We are preparing it and we are still in a phase of confrontation. Each additional word only risks leading to confusion in a normal organizational phase ».

In 2019 the plan provided for 10 access gates with electronic people counting to register arrivals in the historic center, calibrated on a range of 15 thousand people, escape routes marked with ad hoc signs and a corridor for exodus and passage of the ambulances behind the Ubertini square. The flow of people in the streets of the historic center, where the piole and the quadrilateral of taste are set up, was one-way. The wagons dedicated to the grape harvest that parade on Sunday afternoon had fire extinguishers on board and a first aid worker. The tractors will have to have wheel covers. Accesses also counted in the Spurgazzi park which could accommodate a maximum of 2 thousand people. Nor has the program of the festival been drawn up, which has reached its 89th edition, scheduled from 11 to 19 September: “We are in the final drafting phase – assures the treasurer and spokesman Marco Banchio – the party will once again be like those of the years preceding the pandemic unless there are imponderable cases ». –

Lydia Massia